Last night, I went for a beer at the Mill Hill Services Club. The England match was on TV, so I thought it would be a nice way to watch it. On the wall was a notice that one of the club stallwarts has passed away. I am not sure of his age, I'd guess mid 80's. He was one of he members when my Dad used to frequent the club (Dad passed away in 1987). Although I didn't know him that well, we'd always swap a laugh and joke. When I first joined the club, back in 2007, there was a group of such characters who'd sit in the corner on a Friday night. We jokingly called it compost corner. Now only a couple are left. Some moved away, many passed away. I first when to the club when I was eighteen, in 1980. Dad would take me if his regular snooker partner was not available. It was a completely different place. Women were not allowed in, non members couldn't buy drinks. Everyone smoked and there were queues for the snooker tables. The beer was cheap and the club was packed to the rafters. Blokey banter (think Bernard Manning) was the order of the day. Best of all, the beer was cheap. I asked Dad if I could join. His response "why do you think I go there?". I never asked again. It is very different now. The beer is still cheap. People still play snooker, but I have often wondered what Dad would think if he came back. At times, such as the passing of Terry, I think of such things.
I then thought about the wider Mill Hill. What would he make of it. The church he attended, the Sacred Heart, has been knocked down and rebuilt. Woolworths, WH Smiths, Budgens have all gone. It is not all gloom and doom though. We now have Thameslink, so you can get a train across London from Mill Hill. M&S replaced Budgen and in truth has a better range of food. As for the Sacred Heart. A cold, damp, drafty church has been replaced with a modern one, which is far better adapted to the 21st century. Dad was not into heritage, he would approve. He'd rather have a comfy church than a more attractive old drafty one.
When Dad was alive, the big bugbear was how shops were shutting and being replaced by banks and building societies. At one point, there were seventeen in Mill Hill. Now they have all gone. The coffee shop culture had not yet come about. The restaurants he would recognise are The Mill Hill Tandoori and The Good Earth. His favourite, La Katerina (where Pizza Express is) has long gone.
I wonder what Dad would make of his old business at Bunns Lane Works now. The only businesses that are still running on the site are my studios (which was just one small unit then) and my brothers welding business. His old crash repair business MacMetals is now Colours car centre. Kevin, the new owner has done it up and painted it orange. I think Dad would like that. The furniture factory Lyn Products has gone. The fence panel maker Smiths has gone, Smiths Coffee co moved to Hemel Hempstead. Higginsons stairmakers moved out. The car wash is still there, but now run by some Kosovan brothers, rather than Sid Turner, shall we say a larger than life character, who didn't necessarily come by every penny entirely legally! Dad rather liked Sid, as he was always good for a story. Sid has long since joined Dad in the great pub in the sky!
And what is Dad's legacy to the world? Well the most visible one is the gene pool he left. He had six kids. He had 19 grandchildren. I wouldn't hazard a guess at the great grandchildren ( I am rubbish at such things and am not particularly into geneology). I am blessed that none of my siblings have gone upstairs to join him yet. Then there is his business legacy, which is still going in Mill Hill. I am proud that the family has kept it going. There is also the legacy of his career as a wartime bomber pilot. A small cog in a large wheel. But there are all manner of things that intrigue me. Dad undertook 39 successful bombing missions with the RAF. The sad truth is that many of those missions would have changed the lives of families on the ground forever. I once asked him if he ever thought about the families of the people he bombed. He replied "Son, if you started to think about that, you'd go mad".
Clearly the RAF was engaged in a battle against a very evil regime. But as so often happens, the vast majority of those killed and maimed are not the leaders in their bunkers. It is the ordinary people, who are just trying to survive who bear the brunt. When Dad was shot down, he was amazed at the kindness of the Romanian people he met. They bore him absolutely no animosity personally, even though his mission was to destroy their country. The Romanian air force gave his rear gunner a proper burial, which he attended and then hospitality, before returning him to the POW camp. He was very impressed by their honourable behaviour and always said the Romanians were the finest people he ever met. Sadly, the opinion of many uninformed British people towards Romaninans does not have his enlightenment.
Sadly, we are going through a period of British history, where we are less generous and welcoming than ever. We have leaders of major political parties, suggesting that we are becoming like North Korea, a ridiculous statement, becaause the police on occasion behave in a ridiculously overzealous manner. I would be intrigued to see what my father would make of Nigel Farage and Reform. Dad despised Nazi's and Fascists, but he was a Conservative. He was also technically an illegal immigrant, being an Australian, he never regularised his immigration status. It is not inconceivable that he'd be deported today. Dad had a good eye for bullshitters and charlatans. I suspect he'd see right through Farage. In fairness, he'd also despise Sir Keir Starmer. Dad had a massive dislike of 'clever lawyers'. One bit of advice he gave me was this "never trust a lawyer, it is a job where the best ones end up defending the indefensible for cash and if you have any morality or beliefs, you cannot truly be a great lawyer. For those guys the ultimate kick would be getting Adolf Hitler off a genocide charge". I must add that this didn't stop him being thrilled and proud when my sister qualified as a barrister. I wonder what Dad would make of the demise of the Conservative party? He used to say to me that the Conservatives were resilient as they were pragantic. I don't think he'd recognise the current mess as his party.
If we look at the world when Dad was alive, we had the USSR, Aparthied in South Africa, war in Northern Ireland, the UK was in the EEC (it became the EU later), Thatcher was Prime Minister, British Rail ran our railways, we had 4 TV channels, the Daily Express sold just shy of 2 million copies and such newspapers were the primary source of news. Telephones had wires on and computers were mostly in air conditioned data centres. I do wonder what Dad would make of the development of technology. With the rise of mobile phones, we have access to all the information we could possibly ever want, we can find out anything in seconds, listen to just about every recorded music, read every book. What do we do with this power? We make videos of cats riding bicycles and we judge peoples worth by how many likes the video gets.
It is strange. We see the world today and so many things seem like they will last forever. In truth, nothing does. It is all just a moment in time. It can all be washed away in a second.
I'll leave you with this. My little journey back to the 1970's. There is some footage in this of Mill Hill, as Dad would recognise it!
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